Open message to the Middle Classes about the threat of the TPPA…

John Key – our beloved smiling Dear Leader – is about to sign us up to a “free” trade agreement that will undermine Pharmac (and increase the cost of our medicines). You see, Pharmac is the envy of the world and allows us, as a country, to bulk-buy cheap medicines once their patents have expired.

Pharmaceutical companies hate it. They’ll be looking at the TPPA to stop this and make Pharmac more “transparent”. (By “transparent”, that means opening up ourselves to lawsuits by foreign companies.)

But never mind, there’s a great cooking show on Prime TV – Masterchef Uzbekhistan, I think.

Meanwhile, the TPPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement) is being negotiated in secret, behind closed doors. We won’t know what’s in it until the final document is presented to Parliament. Whereupon National, John “Cabbage Boat” Banks, and Peter Dunne, will pass it into law.

Hey, there’s a marvelous home improvement show on TV2 (or TV3? TV5? Oh, they’re all the same) called “Garden Shed 60 Second Challenge…

Once the TPPA is enacted into law, it will open the door to corporations suing us, as a nation, if we doing anything wrong to impact on their profits. I kid you not.This is how a tobacco company sued the Australian government over the plain-packaging policy that was about to be implemented. (The tobacco company lost. But only because the case was tried on Australian soil; under Australian jurisdiction, and laws. The TPPA lawsuits will be carried out in secret, by overseas Tribunals.)

It’s part of the agreement relating to investor’s rights”, as outlined in this leaked, draft copy;

No, no, go back to your TV… or Talkback Radio. I hear Michael Laws is having another go at dem Mow-rees, or gang patches, or whatever he happens to be wanking on about tonight. Because gang-patches, as we all know, is Really Important Stuff that we need to be Really Concerned About.

So while our country is sold out from under us; and jobs are exported to some Third World country; and our kids can’t find work so have to bugger off to Australia (which is rejecting the Investor-State lawsuit Section, I might add, because our Aussie cuzzies aren’t quite as gullible as we are) – just think about what is Really Really Important…

Home Improvement; cooking; and other Reality TV shows on nearly every free-to-air TV channel, plus SKY!! How f*****g cool is that?!

And for all you guys out there with mother-daughter fantasies, the Ridges might be back on TV3 next year!! Woohoo!!

Well, I’m glad we’ve cleared up what is important in our lives.

As John Key said to me in a hall in Lower Hutt, last year,

“Don’t you worry about asset sales or anything. It’ll all be alright.”

Like this:

Related

Damn, this is scary stuff. I don’t get how anyone thinks this is a good idea – but then Jonkey does like to sit and rollover like a lapdog for any scraps falling from the almighty hand that is the US. Oh but cooking and reality TV shows! Can’t forget about that!

I e-mailed Bill English this afternoon to ask him to justify the T.P.P.A. if we were not allowed to see the legalese (read conditions), using the example of justifying buying a car without reading the paperwork before handing over the dosh.

Be interesting to see what he says – if I even get a response. I saved the initial e-mail, so if I don’t get a response, I’ll just try again, and again…

The TPPA is not like buying a car without reading the paperwork before handing over the cash.

A more apt linkage would be if you entrusted someone to sort out the details for a lease arrangement on a vehicle up front but nothing would become legal until you could check out the completed agreement.

If at the end of the discussions the arrangement is not to New Zealand’s benefit then there will be a good chance that the relevant enabling legislation will not be passed. Even if it was passed there is nothing stopping another Government coming along and withdrawing from the agreement.